OCEAN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

At 03:00 on Friday we arrived at the hotel in Capetown, but since no reservations had been arranged we had to call Ed Horton and Pete Johnson, so we only got to bed at 04:00. At 07:30 I got into the office to find out that I had to give a presentation to the Underwater Club that evening. We went to the "Rockeater" for a warm and beery reunion with Captain Cook, then collected all my stuff (incl. first sailfish to enter S.Africa) and cleared customs easily. Fred helped me, and my room was packed to the brim. I had a quick and early dinner in the Caroussel, than slept an hour, after which I prepared my talk and drove to the Club where I had to drink till 21:00, so my presentation was better lubricated. There were some 30 to 40 divers and friends, and I left with a Dutch Plasterer to drink more Bols. Fortunately, I could leave the Kombi for Dave and his gang to pick up, so I could get plastered if I wanted but ate lots of sausages and krupuk (Indonesian shrimp cookies) to prevent that fate.

(NOTE: some confusion in diary dating, so an extra day may have been allotted to me miraculously around Valentine Day: On that day, I slept, unpacked, went to the "Rockeater" to show her to the diving gang, who then took us including Dave and his wife Janet, Joe Wright and Jim Guest, to a party at diving instructor John Wormser's,

diving instructor John Wormser with Dr. Joe Wright

followed by a continuation in the large house of a Dutch electrician, van der Houten, where we drank, played darts ,ate abalone, and talked with a charming Dutch-Lebanese lady named Margareth.) BLO fecit 20031222 contents - next page